


Girls Help Girls

by TheWordBox



Series: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things [3]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-12-29 23:18:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12095622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWordBox/pseuds/TheWordBox
Summary: Everyone agrees; Nikki is, to state the fact mildly, a special child. In many ways. Being special is fine and fascinating, but sometimes it means she needs a little extra help where doing normal things is concerned.Looking back, I have no idea why I allowed this to exist, and I'm so, so sorry.Update on 7/11/18: I just watched Season 3, Episode 4, and I have questions for the Rooster Teeth staff.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to give you guys something after being inactive for this long, but this has gotten so long and is still incomplete. I wanted to share the first half at least. Please enjoy it in all my sheepishness regarding its presentation. A vague connection to Treasure Trek can be found here, and it's one of those special chapters that's written in past-tense.
> 
> Also, the end notes are a rant. I don't regret posting it, but I want you to know it has very little to do with my writing.
> 
> Edit: I accidentally posted this twice. Whoops!

The first two times the wrongness showed itself, everyone noticed, but no one suspected anything, because Nikki was a creature of spontaneity. Even she wrote off her own words and feelings, blaming these strange things on a platypus egg. Nobody proposed the conspiracy theory that the weirdness in her 'lower parts' or her sobbing outburst would have happened even if Campbell's experiment never occurred. Maybe if someone did, that afternoon would have been a lot less useless and a lot more scary.

The next day, the wrongness made itself known again. The Quartermaster, for whatever sick reason, felt it would be fine to serve pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. He was right; none of the drowsy campers batted an eyelash at the foodstuffs they were shoveling into their mouths.

He was _mostly_ right, because all but one camper was totally content to eat a reminder of yesterday. Unfortunately for the Quartermaster's infallibility, Nikki's yesterday was abnormally shitty. When those yellow lumps plopped onto her tray, a bawling mess of a girl came to be where Nikki stood. Neil was the first person to understand, and it was he that shifted her portion of eggs onto Nurf's tray as he led her to a seat between himself and Max. When Max told her to shut up and eat, she wiped off the tears and snot on her sleeve and managed to eat a few bites of her pancakes. Everyone noticed her lack of appetite. Most of them were confused, and her friends were worried, but nobody suspected anything. Because Nikki was ten, and tomboyish, and too ignorant of her own well-being to recognize that she had seen these things before in other people, too distracted to acknowledge they were taking place in her.

After breakfast, nothing else significant happened. Nikki ate enough for herself and both her boys at dinner, and all worry spawned from that morning dissolved.

* * *

When Neil woke himself up the next day, right away his brain registered the familiar feeling of wrongness. The groggy child didn't immediately comprehend the source of the warning, though; he had to ingest a cup of coffee before he could fully gauge his surroundings. After his dose of caffeine, three things were made known to him:

  1. Pained groans and pitiful whimpers were fluttering flimsily from Nikki's folded-over form on the ground.
  2. There were red stains on some of blankets and pillows strewn all over the floor.
  3. Nikki appeared distinctly more feminine than she should.



Suddenly, the rest of Neil's half of the coffee pot was no longer needed to wake him up. "Max!" he shouted. "Wake up! Wake up _right now_ , you sluggish little fucker!"

Max's hands twitched as he cracked open one eye with difficulty and groaned with displeasure. "What's so goddamn important that you're cursing at the top of your lungs this early in the morning, Neil? Even I have more respect than that."

"Max, it's happened again!" Neil wailed at his friend as he gestured towards the corner where Nikki was curled on her side. "She was fine last night, wasn't she?"

In his half-asleep state, Max was as attentive as Neil was before his coffee. "What the fuck are you— _the hell?_ " he yelped as his eyes landed on a bloody pillow next to him. In an instant, he was by Nikki's side, and the whole of the coffee pot's contents were rendered useless. " _Nikki!_ What happened? Are you coughing up blood again, or is something hurt? What hurts? Why _the fuck_ is your hair in _braids_?"

Nikki rolled over to her other side, searching for relief in the movement, and finding none. "The lower part of my tummy hurts," she moaned. "I didn't even know stomachs reached that far down."

"Stomach pains? Okay, that's fixable. But it doesn't explain the _fucking blood and eyelashes_!" Neil exclaimed with flailing arms.

"Okay, Neil, calm down—"

_"I am calm, you hypocrite!"_

_"Like hell you are!"_ Max stopped himself, pinched the bridge of his nose, and tried again. "Look, we don't have all the answers we need right now. But we _do_ know _something_ ; Nikki's got some sort of bug, and it hurts like shit. So let's haul her ass over to the mess hall and get something that'll help!"

"But—"

Max was done with the conversation. He wrenched Nikki's too-pale arms away from her waist and dragged her up into a sitting position, ignoring her feeble resistance to the change. "You carry her. I'll hold the doors and find the drugs."

* * *

Gwen wasn't necessarily a morning person, but her internal clock had been fucked up a few nights ago ( _again_ ), so she was up even earlier than everyone else, as far as she knew. Whenever this happened, she would just sit and read in the mess hall, so she wouldn’t have to move again until it was time for morning exercises. Campers would start to lumber in at about eight o' clock to get their breakfast, and it was almost a peaceful atmosphere until the brats started eating and woke up completely. So when the doors burst open at six thirty and Max ran in with air about him that very nearly resembled trepidation, Gwen couldn’t help but feel a little disappointment alongside bemusement. This mild sadness was forgotten a moment after Neil dashed in with a nigh-unrecognizable figure huddled against his chest; since when were Nikki's cheeks _that_ pale?

"What the fuck?"

She received a very partial answer from Max when he shouted, "C'mon! There's a box full of meds in the bathroom!" Gwen put down her mag and followed the boys. Something serious was going on, and she’d probably lose her job if she didn't take the matter out of ten-year-old hands.

"I'm not asking a rhetorical question here, you two! Whatever kind of shit's going down, you'd better spill. Besides, all that stuff is expired, Max. Whatever the issue is, you'll probably just make it worse."

"Something's really wrong with Nikki." Neil replied over Max's swearing at his own mistake. "She’s got stomach pains, we don't know if she's coughing up blood or bleeding, and she's as sick as the time we took her to town. What do we do?"

"Well, for starters, put her down. Keeping her in that position is putting pressure on her stomach, and that's doing her no favors." Gwen pulled back the shower curtain to the left of the door to reveal a sad-looking bathtub with dirt stains to match the curtain's. "Go on, just lay her on her back in there."

Neil obeyed, and when he pulled away, the smear of blood left on his arm sneered up at them all. As Neil was preoccupied with unleashing a _masculine_ cry of terror and Max was preoccupied with not getting hit by Neil’s flailing arms, Gwen underwent an investigation for the source of blood. Her search was not in vain, but her findings were, to say the least, unforeseen. At last, someone identified the wrongness.

"Uh, boys, you're going to have to get out. Nikki needs a bath." Both of them stopped moving to glare at the tall counselor in shock.

Neil exclaimed, "What? No!" at the same time Max said, "Oh, fuck that noise!". Neither response was what she expected to the implication that Nikki would be naked in a few minutes.

Max helped to clear up her confusion on the matter when he snarled, "Do you really think we're about to leave Nikki alone with the likes of _you_ when she's this sick? Suck a dick, Gwen!"

"Yeah, Gwen," Neil added. "we have an agreement to uphold. We're not going anywhere."

Gwen's thoughts turned to ice. Nikki unleashed a sobbing wail so very unlike her. Only then did Gwen speak again, and when she did, her voice sparked with all the exasperated voltage of an overworked, underpaid woman whose morning had not followed any path resembling the peace she'd needed and expected. "I don't give a shit about whatever obscure agreement you two have running through your heads, but I'm _literally_ paid to do things like this. Now, I'm going to make sure the water is working properly on this tub. When I turn back around, I don't want to see either of you. If I do, I will _literally_ kick both of you out the door. Okay? Okay." And she did exactly as she said; screechy valves and rusty pipes were coaxed to give water, and she made sure none of it touched Nikki until it turned lukewarm. Predictably, when she turned back to where Max and Neil had been standing, stubbornness had glued them to their places on the grimy linoleum with an adhesive of childlike obstinateness. About three seconds later, both of them were tumbling out the bathroom door, kicked aside like a couple of uprooted weeds. Another thirty seconds, and the door squawked miserably again as it was forced open, and three articles of clothing (a yellow T-shirt, a pair of red overalls, and a training bra stained with dirt and sweat) joined the boys on the floor. "Here! If you want to do Nikki some semblance of a favor, go get those cleaned! I know you know how to work the washing machine, Neil! I haven't forgotten that fucking stunt you three pulled last week!" With that, the poor bathroom door slammed shut. 

Two heartbeats of silence, and two blinks from two different pair of eyes. "Huh," Max grunted. "I did _not_ think she was serious. Or capable of that. Neil, did you make a note?"

"Yep."

"Cool." Max stood up and gathered the clothes. He made sure to layer the training bra between the shirt and the overalls before rolling it all up.

Neil stood up too, and murmured, "You think Nikki's gonna be okay with Gwen?"

"Going in there now would probably leave us in worse shape than Nikki is in right now. Besides, if Gwen doesn't do what she's _literally_ paid for, we can always read some of her trash literature aloud through a megaphone at David's campfires until the end of the summer. I know where she hides the really M-rated stuff. If that isn't enough for you, we can throw together something traumatic for her as a group project."

"Okay, sounds good to me. You get those in the washing machine, and I'll break the child's lock on the laundry chemical cabinet. I still don't get why a lock _that_ complex was necessary."

"It's because David and Gwen overreact whenever we have fun."

_"Touché._ Okay, we're here. Just throw everything in and set the machine's settings to cold. I don't think Nikki will care if the colors bleed. Don't start it yet."

"Got it. Also, the meat tenderizer's in the kitchen, if you want to move this along."

"That would just waste more time; David put more of the same child locks in there. You just sit tight."

"Got it," Max said again, and the two boys fell into a worried silence for their friend's health. Despite their resolution and agreement, neither of them had the heart to bring up the fact that Nikki wore a training bra.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of now, I can't yet decide if this series is done our not. Whatever it is, I've moved onto new ideas. The comment rule still applies, I'll just count for work I do in this fandom.  
> Again, I don't know if I'm calling this series finished yet. If I don't post anything for it after a month, I'll close the curtains. I'd advise viewing this as the last work for it, though.

The dark line of clouds creeping over the lake from the Wood Scouts' territory mirrored the confusion Nikki felt. She was sitting in the tub in the only bathroom in the mess hall that actually had a tub, peeking out from behind the shower curtain at Gwen. The woman in question was rummaging through the grungy cabinets with a sort of urgency, and Nikki couldn't understand why as she watched her scramble, shove aside handfuls of medicine bottles, and messily search through the bathroom's contents.

"Hey, Gwen?"

The counselor stopped her movements and snapped her head in the direction of the tub and its filthy curtain. "Yes, Nikki? What's wrong? What is it?" Her tone sounded frustrated, but she’d asked multiple questions in quick succession, so Nikki knew she's more concerned than anything else. That made Nikki feel antsy, and even more confused; what was there to be so concerned about?

"The water's getting cold, and I wanna get out before Neil starts that science experiment without me. We were planning to find out Muack's favorite color today, and we've gotta finish the trials before lunchtime! Can I have my clothes back?"

Gwen sighed and turned back to the cabinets. "Sorry, Nikki, your clothes are still in the wash. Besides, Neil’s not going to do that experiment without you. He and Max are in charge of making sure the washing machine doesn’t overflow."

"They are? Why?"

"Because I told them to. It was the only way they'd stop bugging me to let them in here. Figured if they were so concerned about your well-being, they could make themselves useful."

"Why is everyone so concerned? It's just a little bit of blood, I’m not dying or anything." Nikki shifts her position in the bath. "I don’t think so, at least. Is lady sickness lethal? I mean, I know the cure is old age, but I was gonna get older anyway, so does it—”

"No, Nikki. Menstruation isn't going to be what kills a girl like you. You are, however, going to need a few things, and I  _can't fucking find them!"_   Gwen slammed a cabinet door shut and stood up. "Nikki, I'm going to have to go out for a little while. You just sit tight, 'kay? You won't be alone for long." She was gone before Nikki could reply.

* * *

As soon as Gwen stepped into the mess hall, the two little shits were upon her.

Max's and Neil's babbling melded into a string of brilliantly coordinated incoherency. "Gwen! Nikki's clothes will be done in five minutes and, like, ten seconds! Is she okay? What's wrong with her? Do you know why she's bleeding? Gwen? Do you know why her face looks all weird and girly? Can we go in now? Gwen? _Gwen!"_

 _"Both of you shut up!_ Nikki just got her first fucking period, and I have to go find the only other person in this entire fucking camp who's equipped to handle this shit! Then I have to go buy some Midol, pads, _and_ tampons, because this camp is so _fucking cheap_ that it only had enough supplies for one girl's cycle!" Gwen paused at the hall's exit. "And some underwear for Nikki. It makes way too much sense that she wouldn't have something so essential. Boys, I've said this many times, and I'll say it again; I am not. Fucking. Paid enough for all of the shit I have to do around here." Gwen stared them both down for a full five seconds before going back to grab both of them and shove them out the mess hall's doors. "I can't trust you two to stay out of the bathroom. You're going back to your tent!"

_"The hell, Gwen?"_

"But what about the washing machine?"

"If hasn't exploded yet, it won't. Ered can grab it on her way to the bathroom."

* * *

Nikki usually didn’t take solitude very well, but at that moment, she almost welcomed being alone. It gave her time to mentally review how Gwen managed to get her to take an actual bath. After all, this entire situation was a bit baffling. At least her bladder—she'd decided it was her bladder, and not her tummy, that'd been hurting so badly—had stopped throbbing.

So. She had lady sickness. It explained a lot, but also raised some more questions. Wasn’t ten years old a little soon to catch lady sickness? When did girls normally get it? Nikki knew she was more knowledgeable about this stuff than most girls her age; before her mother waved her onto the bus headed for Camp Campbell, she'd decided her daughter should learn everything she needed to know about the topic; something about not wanting anyone else to try and explain it to her. A weird thing to say, because she never finished telling Nikki everything, nor did she answer all of her questions. So in the end, Nikki was still pretty clueless about a lot of things.

Nikki startled when the door screamed again. Thinking Gwen had returned, Nikki peeked out through her triangular window again. Instead of Gwen, however, it was Ered who stepped into the bathroom. "Hey, Nikki. Gwen asked me to bring you these," she held up a clump of Nikki's clothes in one hand. Sitting on top of her shirt, next to her training bra, was a purple makeup bag with two tampons sticking out of the unzipped top.

"H-hey, Ered!" Nikki squeaked. "Um, could you bring that stuff over here? I'd go over to you, but—heh."

"No sweat, Nikki. I get it." The skater sauntered over to the tub, but hesitated. "Do you, like, want a towel first?"

"I didn't see any towels when Gwen was rooting around in the cabinets," Nikki replied slowly. "and I usually just shake the water off. Or sit in the sun for a while. Water just dries on its own anyway."

"Pretty chill, huh? That's cool, as long as you're okay with a soggy tampon." Ered's pale, purple-sleeved hand held out one of the tampons. "It might be a little big, but it's the only size I have, and a pad wouldn't work for you."

Nikki took the tampon. "This should be fine. The ones my mom uses are even bigger anyway."

"Do you, like, even know how to use a tampon, Nikki?"

"I think so. Mom showed me once. Just give me a sec!"

Ered accepted the stretchy wrapping when Nikki handed it to her through the curtain and threw it away for her. "It could have been way worse, you know. When I had my first period, I was at my sixth grade open house. Both my dads were talking to the dean about my stealing from the school’s vending machines when I realized blood was coming out of my vagina. It was so uncool."

Nikki peeked her head out of the curtain again. " _Really_ , Ered? Also, I'm done. Can I have my clothes?"

"Sure thing!" Ered swapped out the remaining garbage in Nikki's hand for her training bra, and gradually gave her the rest of her clothing as she extended her hand for it. "Anyway, I had to interrupt the conversation to tell them, which was hard because all three of them thought I was just trying to divert the topic away from my rule-breaking. That was also uncool. It got better once I got the message through, though. Neither of my dads had, like, any idea what they were supposed to do, but the dean gave me some pads from her personal stash and let me use the bathroom in the teacher's lounge. She even recommended a brand to me that's, like, really good for minimal bathroom breaks at school. Turns out she was a pretty cool person. I miss her."

Nikki stepped out from the middle of the tub, so she had to walk a few feet before the shower curtain slipped from the top of her head. "She _sounds_ super cool, Ered!"

Ered passed Nikki her socks and shoes, and the sopping wet girl began the one-foot-balancing maneuver required to put her footwear on whilst standing up. The blonde continued, "Yeah, but she still wouldn't drop the subject of my vending machine raids." She watched Nikki struggle with her right shoe for a moment before saying, "Hey, word from the wise, Nikki; if you ever want to, like, drive all the boys out of a room, just start talking about periods. For some reason, most guys think vagina blood is, like, _super_ gross, they'll be gone in five seconds, tops. And if you have a guy-friend who's totally cool with going out to buy you pads when you're having an emergency—you should, like, seriously consider marrying him. Hold onto guys like that for the rest of your life, and you'll be set. Unless they're a creepy, forceful asshole. But that's, like, the one exception."

Nikki nodded slowly and deliberately. "Got it!" she shook herself like a wet dog, and Ered had to take a step back and turn her head to avoid being drenched to a very uncool degree. "Okay! I'm ready to go!"

"Cool."

* * *

Max and Neil sat in their tent for about ten minutes before going back to the mess hall, and the only reason they even waited that long was to confirm Gwen had up, left, and wasn't coming back for a while. By the time they made it back, however, David was helping the Quartermaster help prepare breakfast, and Ered had apparently already made it to the bathroom. David, being the group-oriented piece of ass he was, employed the two boys as helpers with way too much enthusiasm for seven thirty in the morning. So Max and Neil were in the mess hall with nothing to do but ignore David and worry about Nikki.

"Remember that time Gwen had it? She was MIA for days." Neil fretted.

"What I don't get is why Gwen woke _Ered_ up to force her to help Nikki with her 'period' but _we_ aren't even allowed to be in the same room as her! I thought adults _liked it_ when kids wanted to help other kids. This is bullshit!" Max spat.

Neil began pacing beside the table where Max sat. "And we still don't know why Nikki looked… different this morning. Not even Gwen could explain that."

"Gwen didn't explain shit. Fuck, she didn't even bother to tell us what a period _is_!"

Neil, a man of science and facts down to his very core, pondered aloud. "When Gwen had her period, she mentioned being in a lot of pain. So Nikki's stomach issues are most likely linked to this 'period'."

"Which begs the question— _what the fuck is a period?"_ Max slammed his head into grimy table.

From the kitchen, David and the Quartermaster could hear every naïve word slamming through the space in the eating room. The lanky counselor turned his head towards the elderly groundskeeper as he fried frozen sausages on the stovetop. "Quartermaster, do you think we should… erm… teach the campers about adolescence today."

"Whether you want to tell them or not is irrelevant. You cannot stop what has been set in motion."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Gwen's gonna tell the kid. The kid's gonna tell her friends. Grapevines and gossip will do the rest of the work."

"Oh dear. As always, Quartermaster, you're right." David stopped flipping patties for a moment to think of a solution. His eyes lit up as he concluded, "But we ought to at least have a class of some sort, to make sure everyone gets accurate and complete information."

"Yeah, okay."

Outside the kitchen, Nikki whooped as she dashed into the mess hall and tackled Neil in mid-stride, while in contrast Ered slid into the room and set herself and her makeup bag at a table in the corner. Both he and Max peppered her with questions, from how she was feeling to why her eyelashes were so goddamn abnormally long. As always, the Quartermaster's prophecy set itself in the stone of truth as campers filed in for breakfast and overheard Nikki's epic tale of what happened to her that morning. Outside, foreboding, refreshing raindrops indented themselves in the dirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I was thinking about drawing this out even more, but I'll just leave the rest of the campers' day up to your imaginations, because by the end of this, I felt as resigned as the Quartermaster.
> 
> Also, in case you couldn't tell, Nikki's hyper-femininity was caused by hormone levels. I know that the menstrual phase of the cycle isn't the one where they're most prominent, but in my own experience, that first day when the blood starts to come out, as well as the day before it, is riddled with irrational feelings, I inexplicably gain a few pounds, and it's also the only time I ever have acne breakouts. In other words, that little bit was inspired by personal experience, not textbook research.

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: this post is _really_ long.  
>  I'mma just say this clearly, to boys and girls alike; don't ever write off a girl's emotions or actions as symptoms of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. Even if she is on her period or is about to have her period, when you say something like that, you're essentially saying her opinion doesn't matter because of her hormones. It's like saying to a boy that his feelings or actions don't matter because testosterone makes him say or act the way he does. Sure, maybe the girl was being a bitch, or the boy was just vying for a chance to get laid, but placing the blame on hormones, something none of us can control, won't solve anything. Even if you don't mean to imply anything I just described, don't try to convince yourself it's okay to claim PMS; if you accidentally slap someone in the face, you apologize. The concept is no different if you replace the physical slap with a figurative, verbal one. So please, don't go yammering on about PMS. Have the couth to handle a situation ( _any_ situation) in a more civilized manner.


End file.
